Library Talk – August 1, 2018

Our Art Camp for the elementary school kids this week was filled to the max, with fun and learning all rolled up together. Thanks to the Ohio Arts Council, F.O.R.K. and the Ripley Friends of the Library for supporting this project. Next week is for middle school kids, and as I write this, there are a few slots left, and this is for kids in grades 5-8.

The beginning of a new school year is right around the corner, and we are seeing, especially for the elementary grades, books being requested by teachers. We welcome the requests, and hope that all the local teachers know we can gather books together for you to borrow. A word of warning—seems teachers from far away start their requests earlier than our teachers, and some of the ‘first day of school’ books have already left the building! Fear not, there are still more, as well as many books of other subjects and authors on the shelf. We also have a nice selection of ‘parent/teacher’ books with ideas of projects from art for pre-schoolers to lesson planning, to fall crafts to geography ideas—we welcome your browsing, using and input on this collection.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I believe it is an underused portion of our services—we offer the opportunity for you to bring in computer/smartphone/tablet questions and talk to our staff members that have a good grasp of the technology! Here at Ripley, Tuesdays and Thursday evenings are schedulable to talk with Matt Carpenter, Aberdeen’s Jeremiah Costa blocks Tuesday afternoon for one-on-ones, but can often be available for a quick answer other times, and Russellville library has the luxury of having a Guiding Ohio Online trainer with hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The questions can range from ‘how do I set up an email account?’ to ‘show me some of the new databases’ to why can’t I open this file, how do I start to learn this program, to why does my device do this when I want it to do that? No question is unimportant, and we will try to help you out, free of charge. Ripley telephone 937-392-4871, Aberdeen 937-795-2534, and Russellville 937-377-2700.